A female electrical connector in which male contacts are attached to a female housing has conventionally been known. Such a female electrical connector is designed to mate with a mating male electrical connector in which female contacts are attached to a male housing so that this mating male electrical connector is electrically connected to a circuit board and the like. To be concise, the female electrical connector will herein after be referred to as a female connector and the male electrical connector will hereinafter be referred as a male connector.
The female connector shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B (see Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. H4-206483), for example, has been known as a conventional female connector of this type.
This female connector 101 comprises a female housing 110 which has a plurality of recessed mating sections 110a through 110d that receive mating male connectors (not shown in the figure), and a plurality of rows of male contacts 120 which protrude from the bottom surfaces of the recessed mating sections 110a through 110d to the interior of these recessed mating sections 110a through 110d. Each of the male contacts 120 has a tine 121 that protrudes from the female housing 110 in the opposite direction from the recessed mating sections 110a through 110d, and these tines 121 are connected to a circuit board (not shown in the figure).
Furthermore, the female housing 110 is provided with a plurality of ribs 111 which protrude from the respective bottom surfaces of the recessed mating sections 110a through 110d to the interior portions of these recessed mating sections 110a through 110d. As is shown in FIG. 8B, the ribs 111 extend from the respective bottom surfaces of the recessed mating sections 110a through 110d to the same plane as the front end surface (right end surface in FIG. 8B) of the female housing 110, so that the protruding length from these bottom surfaces is greater than that of the male contacts 120 which protrude to the interior of the respective recessed mating sections 110a through 110d. Accordingly, when an attempt is made to insert mating male connectors diagonally into the female connector 101, the mating male connectors always contact the female housing 110 and ribs 111 before contacting the tips of the male contacts 120. As a result, there is no damage or deformation of the tips of the male contacts 120 when the mating male connectors are inserted into the female connector 101.
However, in this conventional female connector 101, there is no male contact 120 disposed in the areas where the ribs 111 are disposed as shown in FIG. 8A. The attachment of the male contacts 120 to the female housing 110 is generally accomplished by attaching a group of the male contacts 120 of each row by driving these male contacts in from the rear of the female housing 110. In the female connector 101, however, since the areas where the ribs 111 are disposed have no male contact 120 disposed therein, it is necessary to have a process of removing the male contacts 120 in the areas where the ribs 111 are disposed. Furthermore, the removed male contacts 120 are commonly discarded.